Talk:Plasma
Untitled Check the third bullet of "Trivia." Really, plasma bolts can be stopped with hot-pads? So the UNSC marines should geared up in kitchen hot-pads to avoid being injured by plasma weapons, including the energy sword! Please check the source of that claim. I agree, the third bullet needs to be removed or changed. The author tries to make it seem like the games aren't canon (while they obviously are), while suggesting that the books and the games are from two different series. They aren't. When analyzing Halo (since both the books and games are cannon), there has to be a cannon explanation for any said power disparities. But, in spite of that, I'd dispute his claim that there are power disparities. Yes, in the game, plasma weapons are less effective than projectile weapons against unshielded targets, but that isn't unreasonable. If I take a 2 lb. projectile, and accelerate to 40% of the speed of light (what some Gauss guns do), it will have nearly 2 megatons of energy when it hits it target! That's about the energy of a small nuclear bomb. Though I in no way suggest that UNSC machine guns have that kind of yield, it stands to reason that a handheld projectile weapon can be just as powerful as a handheld plasma weapon. Moreover, he claims that the weakness of plasma weapons in the games conflicts with the strength of plasma in the books. But we do see plasma weapons killing people in the books. We do see marines get killed by the Elite's plasma rifles. Plasma rifles can cut through armor, just like we see in the book. So, really, there is no reason to conclude a break in canon here. The information in the books agrees with the video games. The author has a point though. Often it seems in the book that being touched by any plasma means your screwed. Marines and machines are destroyed nigh instantaneously by plasma in the books but soak the same amount like sponges in the game. however, this actually makes the games more accurate, given that the Body Armor article says that "Marines sometimes have thin Titanium-A armor suits, though these are an increasingly rare sight. These suits are slowly being replaced by ceramic variants", ceramic materials have very high heat resistance and even modern ceramic materials are able to withstand the incredibly high temperatures of plasma, which is why Dr. Michio Kaku used ceramic materials in his design for a Lightsaber, and if ceramics can survive being made into a Plasma sword, than they should also be able to survive being shot by a Plasma Rifle, (which a Lightsaber would also need to do) Andrew-108 19:12, September 22, 2010 (UTC) Plasma runs the gamut from several thousand to a couple million degree Celsius. The thermal damage alone from even touching a small amount of "cold plasma" will toast you nicely. Touching even hotter plasma will violently vaporize and expand the water in your body, potentially bursting chunks of your flesh off of your body (steam has roughly 1600x the volume of water given same temp/pressure and continues to expand as it is heated). If the plasma is hot enough and hits bone, the rapid vaporization and expansion of the bone marrow could serve as an impromptu explosive that launches bone shards in all directions along with globs of liquified fat everywhere (assuming there is an abundance of plasma). Further assuming that the plasma weapon in question does launch enough plasma, the velocity of the plasma "bolt" mushrooms (also assuming that whatever contained the plasma on its trajectory collapses somehow). Once the plasma impacts the target, it will mushroom (assumption based on behavior of bullets upon impact) and potentially turn into a plasma torus/donut (assumption based on the Project Orion studies that modeled nuclear plasma impacting a flat surface). I think it would also be safe to assume that depth of penetration of the plasma "bolt" into the target would be dependent on its velocity (based on conventional terminal ballistics). So in the end the target either ends up with a partially excavated crater at the impact location or in steaming chunks. Of course, everything I just wrote could be complete bull :) 11:02, October 26, 2013 (UTC)BeamSpam As for using ceramic materials for body armor, that would be a bad idea if it was the sole armor material. While certain ceramics such as various oxides/carbides/borides/nitrides do have the necessary high vaporization energy needed to resist heat, they also have much lower toughness/fracture toughness values than metals (they're more fragile). This is important because the plasma "bolt" will violently vaporize (i.e. cause a mini "explosion" of) the impacted target material. These "explosions" will fragment and shatter the ceramic thus leaving the target exposed. Furthermore the impact of the plasma "bolt" will further stress and fragment the ceramic potentially launching a spray of ceramic particles into the target. Therefore, ideally you would want a material with both a high vaporization energy (to resist the heat) and high toughness value (to resist shattering/fragmentation). With cermets, the ideal properties of metals and ceramics are combined. However, you can further minmax the various properties by combining cermets with additional substances to create composite armor. Ideally this armor would also be laminated together to offer ablative heat protection while decreasing bulk. Just my two cents 11:28, October 26, 2013 (UTC)BeamSpam Background Maybe I shouldn't be questioning this, but shouldn't a little background on Plasma as a substance be added i.e.: "Plasma is a fourth state of matter in the universe?" Anyone agree, disagree? AgreedNi9lson 00:33, 3 January 2008 (UTC)